"Joe," exclaimed Clara, "do tell us what all this means! Jim is just trying to tantalize us." "Stung!" grinned Jim. "That's what comes from mixing in family matters." "Why, it's this way, Sis," laughed Joe. "That fellow traveled a thousand miles to call me a hick. I wouldn't stand for it and made him take it back and then he got mad and skipped." "Momsey," begged Clara in desperation, "can't you make these idiots tell us just what happened?" "Them cruel woids!" ejaculated Jim mournfully. "Do tell us, Joe!" entreated his mother. "I'm just dying to know all about it." Teasing his mother was a very different thing from teasing Clara, who was an adept at that art herself, and Joe surrendered immediately. They forgot to eat--all except Jim, who seldom carried forgetfulness so far--while he told them about Westland's call and his proposition to Joe to break his contract and jump to the new league. Sixty-five thousand dollars was a staggering amount of money, a fortune, in fact, in that quiet town, and yet there was not one of that little family who didn't rejoice that Joe had turned the offer down. "You did the right thing, Joe," said his father heartily; "and the fact that lots of people would call you foolish doesn't change things in the least. A man who sells himself for a hundred thousand dollars is just as contemptible as one who sells himself for a dollar. I'm proud of you, my boy." "I could have told beforehand just what Joe would do," said Mrs. Matson, wiping her eyes. "You're the darlingest brother ever!" exclaimed Clara, coming round the table and giving him a hug and a kiss. The thought of Clara being a sister to him had never appealed to Jim before, but just at that moment it would have had its advantages. For the rest of the meal all were engrossed in talking of the great event of the morning--that is, all but Joe, who kept casting surreptitious glances at the clock. "Don't get worried, Joe," said his sister mischievously, as she intercepted one of his glances. "Mabel's train doesn't get in until half-past two, and it isn't one o'clock yet." Joe flushed a little and Jim laughed. "Can you blame him?" he asked. "Not a bit," answered Clara. "Mabel's a darling and I'm crazy to get hold of her. After Joe, though, of course," she added. Joe threw his napkin at her but missed. "Sixty-five thousand dollars for a baseball player who can't throw any straighter than that," she mocked. "It's a lucky thing for the new league that you didn't take their money." "Maybe I had better take their money after all!" cried Joe tantalizingly. At these words Clara threw up her hands in mock horror. "You just dare, Joe Matson, and I'll disown you!" "Ah-ha! And now I'm disowned and cast out of my home!" exclaimed the young baseball player tragically. "Woe is me!"